justice issue requires coordination. >> is that not being handled in other areas? >> honestly i don't know. >> and we have the environment stdivision. and we want to have coordination between the two. >> i mentioned three things i would put in frontnt of this. thank you so much. >> now we will take a break and then we convene at 11:30 a.m.

[inaudible conversations] >> we will come back to order. >> mr. attorney general, welcome, before i

begin asking questions i want to know when senator leahy he was asking is that something we are monitoring very carefully and we work hard to make sure that we have $5 million for the victims service organization and that was a panic cry we heard from the states and i am concerned senator leahy has made this a priority to make sure we are not in a situation and that we are not measuring appear. there is a gap's of there is any kind ofme alternative funding line items. and that the department is looking at that and then

raised an issue with the new grant programs for reasons known or unknown to be reflected in the present budget and then you indicated some of those might be and those are the grant programs focus on expanding access as well as medical forensic examination. so my hope is that if it's just a matter of timing are not a deliberate choice to overlook those in states like alaska and to underscore when these issues are raised i am right there with him so to that issue this was something i have been we been working on

for a long time and then to advancing get itio signed into law contained with the reauthorization the alaska public safety empowerment pilot. and then to have a level of justice and then to get to the remote rural villages. and thenno with regards with regards to public safety it's not indian country are taking jurisdiction away from the state. and then to establish a process to designate the indian tribes that can participate in the pilot.

the question to you is what do you anticipate in terms of the department of justice plans how do you see this moving forward with the alaska —- alaska tribal safety committee. and the presidents a budget to support and that public safety geadvisory committee. >> i'm very grateful for everything that you did. and we are lockstep on this in support the pilotse program. and then to investigate these

matters we cannot just leave them on done. and eager to get the pilot growing and with the commission. i don't see any reason honor time for the. >> we like to work with you to understand and then last question for you. and then currently alaska does not have any federal facilities to house our federal inmate population we have seen considerable growth over the years with the federal inmates have grown just to a few hundred to over a thousand and then what

happens as individuals are sent to serve their sentences at facilities outside of the state, sometimes two or 5000 miles away from their home. i have sent you a letter and if you consider a feasibility study working with the bureau of prisons to conduct a new feasibility study that hasn't been done for a period of time it was about two decades ago. a lot has changed in alaska since then we have not heard a response back and then on aba new feasibility study and willing to work with bureau of prisons to obtain halfway house bed space we only have

39 beds for the entire state of alaska all of them are located in anchorage. >> am happy to have our team speak to yours. >> and then three of them at the same hearings today with seems like we can organize ourselves little better and i did not hear the end result and i am assuming do we need a special prosecutor to look into the hunter biden affair do you think we need to and then i would have one follow-up question do weo? need a special prosecutor to look into that and the

investigation is run a supervised by the appointee of the previous administration continuing on as united states i attorney. and the question if you have a special counsel is one that is internal decision-making to make judgments one way or the other but i'm quite comfortable with united states attorney forak that district continuing in the role he is playing. >> and the follow-up question and when counsel mueller was assigned the steel dossier issue which now has been debunked. and then do you think a special counsel is needed there as well?

>> of course it would be different for me. >> it is obvious that would be a question many word wonder about in terms of what that standard is what that consistency is and it would be the t same from one administration to the next and one that is more pertinent in the sense that what's happening on the southern border what is confusing the administration says we don't have enough resources, done things from the beginning i was down there was 17 other senators one year ago and to give you thegs description thatn had gone from record though illegal crossings and then to

roll our sleeves up and fix all the issues associated with it. it is 212,060,000 and got a ways. and then there are conflicting statements about not having enough resources. . . our job ie

immigration courtse after we get referrals so we've already onboard it as anyone we can as immigration judges. we asked in fiscal year 22 for 100 more. again, no fault of this committee because you gave the right market as a consequence of thesk omnibus that wasn't funded so we are asking for 200 new immigration judge teams a total of 1200 new staff for that purpose. that's we've also asked for money from a virtual court

initiative so we can run these court proceedings more efficiently and effectively. if we get the additional immigration judges we will move them to the border. we are already going to be moving them to the border as it is. >> canif you describe what your request is compared to what it was in prior years what magnitude of difference? >> it's an additional 1200 staff. >> in addition to how much before? >> a total of 834. the staff includes the clerks et ceterabe so 200 more 634 is what we have. >> with the arithmetic i put out earlier, the problem has quadrupled so it would beg tot question are we putting enough

resources to it or is it lip service because we know it's a big issue? >> that might not be adequate given the magnitude of the current problem it's predicted to go up even by 50% more. >> that's a fair question. we didn't get what we asked for last time so we are trying to be realistic but resources are not the only thing we are doing. we've also adopted a new asylum so the decisions are made by the asylum officers. then if there are denials it will be a streamlined process which reduces the amount of time from four years to six months. we also have a dedicated docket toti be able to better distribue the work so we want more resources and we are trying to

streamline and put more of the work. >> thank you, senator. >> i know senator moran and i both have a second round of questions we would like to do. it's not clear that anyone else is interested. i don't know if you whether have -- you also have another round but mine arer relatively briefo i will go ahead. you were discussing with senator the issue of police -- as you are aware and sure there is no so in fy 2020 we directed at the bureau of justice statistics to maintain a datali set for feder, state and local law enforcement. unfortunately, they have not

moved forward on collecting the data. we provided to stronger directives as well as $3 million for the data collection effort in the bill, but still nothing. were you aware of the delays in the project and what can we do to try to collect the data because as you know it is critical to figuring out how we respond. we need to have information so we can think about what to do t. address what is becoming more and more of a challenge nationwide. >> i understand bj s will be submitting its report within the next couple of months. i'm not sure exactly how many months it is. in about eight weeks i will have an update for you on where they are on this. >> i look forward to getting that. sadly we have had high-profile suicides in new hampshire and i

look forward to working with of the department on what we can do to address the challenge of suicide within our law enforcement agencies. so, thank you. i am pleased to hear that we should expect something soon. unfortunately, i missed a couple of the discussions around what is happening with fentanyl because i had to step out but i know that on thursday the administrationnd released their drug control strategy like so many states new hampshire is onk that has had way too many overdose deaths because of fentanyl. and i wondered if you could give a little insight in how the resources are being shifted to respond to that strategy and how that might impact the small states like new hampshire which are struggling with this

challenge. >> we have been involved in the development of the strategy and there's two sides to this, there is the drug trafficking organizationshe and the health challenges for those who are addicted trying to get them off of the addiction. on the drug trafficking side, we are asking for $9.8 billion across doj to counter the drug trafficking. the agency for us is the dea for 3.1 billion which is $102 million increase. fentanyl is at the very top of the list of concerns. when i was at the border i saw the same problem everyone else is reporting of these are very tiny pills and as the administrator makes clear, one pill can clear and it's like playing russian roulette because some of these are overdose pills.

so that's an extraordinary part of what we are doing. we ask for money for marshals and u.s. attorneys and the fbi. the fbi is particularly targeting fentanyl and opioid trafficking on the dark web and as we announced in the last two weeks we took down the largest dark web drug marketplace to prevent the way in which some people are getting it which is online at this point, so there's a number of different things. the criminal division has money in the budget for the regional task strike forces. and then there are cops grants under the program for and anti-meth task forces. that's only enforcement side. on the overdose addiction side, we've asked for $418 million for the comprehensive addiction recovery care act grants. we asked for $190 million for

the comprehensive ovulated stimulus grant and another 75 million for mental health and substance abuse grants. money for drug courts, 95 million for veterans treatments courts and for the consumerr protection brands whh tries to stop those that are over subscribing and in properly over dispensing opioids so it is a two pill issue here for us. i can't think of anything more important or tragic than what fentanyl is doing to the american people. >> thank you. i certainly agree with that and hope as the strategy gets rolled out that considerable fault will be given to the rural parts of the country and small states like new hampshire, which may appear positively on lots of scales with respect to income level and resources, but in fact

have been very hard hit and really need help. thank you very much. senator moran. >> thank you. general, thank you for your presence today. just a couple more questions and perhaps a follow-up to a couple of my colleagues questions. first of all i would like to start with title 42 in the conversation with senator braun. i think your answer to him was more prospectively what might transpire into the need for additional resources in the future. i would like to highlight or focus on this year the budget request that's in front of us now. i know there's some uncertainty with the federal judge in new orleans and the decision, but it seems to me at my view this is a pretty reckless decision but because the estimates are about 14,000 migrants could begin crossing the border per day after title 42 ends on may 203rd.

that has to have an enormous resource consequences for the federal government.42 i think homeland security is already talking about additional running out of money and needing additional dollars. ice and border patrol is estimated it could be out of fundus by july of this year. what about the impact on doj components, marshals,es immigration courts, u.s. attorneys offices? have you prepared any estimates, has the department prepared estimates to about the increasing expenditures may be this year unaccounted for in the budget request? >> i don't know thatd- we have. i don't think we have those numbers now. but i think that our staff can work with yours. there's no question that there will be an increase in the u.s. attorney resources needed along the southern border. we've hired with respect as i was telling the sender we've hired all the way up under the current appropriations, so without more we won't be able to

increase the numbers. we are doing everything we can to streamline the system and move people. but we are always happy for more money and i would be happy to have the staff speak with the subcommittee staff about that. >> general, my conversation with you earlier in today's hearing generally revolved around violent crime and my view is the consequence of what the administration is determined to do with section 42 can't be compensated for by removing resources going to fight violent crime. the border and violent crime are clearly related, significantly related but i remember visiting the border and what stood out to me is when we were housing the juveniles on the border, 40% of the border patrol agents were then in the housing business,

not the border patrol business. and i think there's an analogy there's something the department of justice must avoid, which is to take the resources away from something thathe is a crisis already to address the crisis that is going to occur with the removal of 42. does that make sense? >> yes and i assure you we don't want to remove the money we need to fight violent crime to put it anywhere else. has the department volunteered were then tasked with providing personnel to support the dhs during this crisis? >> u.s. marshals? >> yes. to be clear, we don't do border patrolling. trained for that or anything else the bureau of prisons is going to make buses available and for the transfers the border

patrol needs assistance for and the marshals service is going to be providing additional deputy u.s. marshals to assist at the border. but i don't want to overstate how much that is because our ability to make those contributions is not large. >> thank you. senator shaheen visited with you about drugs in particular rural and small states. you and i had a conversation probably as you were being confirmed about rural law enforcement departments and i asked you and you agreed and i think you've pursued making certain that the rural agencies, small agencies in particular have a fair shot at getting the federal resources. anything you can do to update or that you would request of me to make that more or less owners some and more likely?

>> ian think we have been doing that.or we made it easier to make law enforcement agencies in particular the rural ones that you are speaking of to make applications for the grants. i will tell you that on my recent trip to the u.s. attorneys offices to talk to law enforcement taskforces in colorado and louisiana andnt particular met with rural sheriffs and i wanted to make sure that these taskforces were not only focus on the cities, but were focused on helping the rural sheriffs as well and in both of those circumstances at least, we got considerable information that that is working well, that the law enforcement provides the boots on the ground who know the people in the community and federal law enforcement marshals are able to

provide the technology and the skills necessary to find people across the border from one jurisdiction to another and to bring themte back so this is anecdotal, but my anecdotal work suggests very good cooperation in these taskforces. >> my time is more than expired. i would just mention one other thing and perhaps there could be a follow-up by you or your staff. i'm surprised that the doj's only requesting your budgetps request is only an additional $68.6 million to investigate and prosecute cyber crimes including 52 million of the fbi and 15 million of the u.s. aattorney's office. the magnitude of problem is i can't imagine it can be addressed with that minimal or modest amount. >> my numbers look a little different than yours.

mine show more than $1.2 million to address cyber security and cyber crimee across the country. the increases are 15 million for 50 more u.s. attorneys to bring these cases for another $88 million for an additional 75 personnel to bring the cases and for our own cybersecurity for the justice department and all the law enforcement agencies 115 million so i'm not sure why the numbers are -- >> i may have misspoken or certainly at minimum was confusing -- those are the increases, not the total amount. >> we did get more money in the recent supplemental because of ukraine. i can promise we expect to ask for more money and part is cyber defense because we are quite worried obviously about that i'm

trying to decide what to call it, it is a captured task force so we will be asking for additional money but you did give us more money in the supplemental on this as well. >> thank you for joining us and i did agree with senator shaheen to help her work together with her to see that we get the u.s. attorney process back under the fashion which we get some confirmations. >> that would be great. thank you. >> senator graham. >> on the russia front, i appreciate what you manage your team are doing. if there is a lot on your plate you wanted money in the supplemental. is there additionalan authority you need from congress to be more aggressive in terms of

going after the oligarchs and or do you need any legal changes? >> thank you for asking about that. we have been very careful examining that question and i expect that there will be requests for legislative changes that could go in the way i think i mentioned earlier the possibility of taking money outy of the forfeiture that we collect this way sending it to ukraine. ini expect within days. that is what it means to give the people that profited from destroyingng the economy. about family members that have been used to sort of longer

money i would encourage you to put everything on the table. when it comes to afghanistan, have you been briefed recently about the possibility of terrorism emanating into the united states? has that gone up or down, do you know? >> the details of that i would have to defer to a classified briefing. i think it is fair to say that we are constantly concerned about the risks that isis cable try to mount something in the united states like continuing with respect to al qaeda but the

fbi is putting an enormous amount of resources into preventing that as is the intelligence community outside of the united states. >> would stay in touch on that. this idea of taking title 42 out of the toolbox as a way to deal with illegal immigrant crossings, do you believe title 42 if repealed there would be a surge of the border? >> i think it's important for me to explain our role in this and the justice department's role is when the cdc makes its assessment as it did and asks us to appeal and determine whether that would be lawful and the, department concluded that the cdc's -- >> but you're in charge -- i'm sorry, go ahead and finish your thought. >> the other part of the

question i think all intelligence suggests there will be a large increase in the border, yes. when it comes to drugs coming into the united states from the southern border in the last year has that problem gotten better or worse? >> i don't know what the numbers are.r it is obviously the case that the transportation of fentanyl particularly has increased. it's much more compact and smaller, goes a longer way. the smugglers particularly have developed ways to hide it even from the x-rays so that problem has increased in a way that makes all of us very worried. >> so when it comes to your role in all of this, if title 42 is repealed and we get the surge there is an increase in fentanyl coming across the border and the

leading cause of death for americans 18 to 45 they tell me is fentanyl overdose, do you think this budget and the game plan for the biden administration is effective against this increase? >> i think the budget we've asked for for drug trafficking and drug interdiction which is $9.8 billion is a huge amount and in our misallocation of america's resources in this respect. but again our job is different than the department of homeland security's resources. >> i will try to wrap up here. drug introductions are dramatically less than they were in fy 2020 -- 2021. we are in the 13,000 that's how much was91 interdicted and now e

are at 340,000. it seems to be that it's going down. so my basic question is do you consider the border in a state of crisis? >> i think as you pointed othert there is going to be a lot of intelligence to suggest a lot more people migrating the border. >> the reason i mentioned it the amount of drugs coming across are unprecedented and the amount of people coming across the border illegally is veunprecedented. it seems to me every trendline is getting worse and to be honest with you mr. attorney general, i think we need to go all in, all hands on deck controlling the border. do you believe what we have in placeal through this budget and the system as a whole that we can expect to turnrn this aroun? >> with respect to the justice department which is the only thing i can speak to i think ift you give us the increased

resources that we are askingey for, we can do our job. ntsix months from now, we will see. >> thank you, senator graham. if there are no further questions this afternoon, senators can submit additional questions for the official hearing record. we request the department's responses within 30 days of receiving those and the subcommittee stands in recess until tuesday may 3rd when we will hold a hearing on the budget requests of nasa and the national science foundation. thank you very much mr. attorney general and to all of your staff.

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vice president harris has tested positive for covid-19. she confirmed in a tweet she has no symptoms and will continue to isolate and follow cdc guidelines. the vice president is both vaccinated and boosted. her office says she hasn't recently been in close contact with the president or first lady end plans to return to the white house when she tests negative.

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♪♪ the supreme court must decide whether the biden administration had the authority to end the so-called remain in mexico policy that was implemented under president donald trump. under the program and on the citizens crossing the us-mexico border were sent back to mexico to a way to their immigration proceedings. the homeland security department put an end to the program in june of 2021 but missouri and texas filed suit or